Toy balloon



G. E. SCHOBERG 2,170,539

TOY BALLOON Filed June 21, 1937 Patented Aug. 22, 1939 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE TOY BALLOON George E. Schoberg, Minneapolis, Minn.

Application June 21, 1937, Serial No. 149,319

6 Claims.

This invention relates to inflatable toy balloons and the like and more particularly to balloons which are shaped to simulate actual ob- Jects which are more or less irregular in shape.

Of course, it is well known in the art to manufacture ordinary rubber balloons and the like for use as toys and for advertising purposes, but the great draw-back of the well known rubber balloon is that when it is inflated certain parts will bulge under the internal pressure and greatly distort the shape which the balloon is supposed to maintain. In many cases a single portion of the balloon will bulge considerably and other portions will hardly be inflated to any great extent.

It is, therefore, a general object of my invention to provide an inflatable toy balloon or similar device which is irregular in shape preferably to simulate the shape of well known objects or a human or animal form which can be inflated with sufllcient internal pressure to give the device of a substantial amount of rigidity and at the same time insure the retaining of its desired shape.

A further object of the invention is to provide means for increasing the strength of certain parts of the object to render them less flexible than other portions thereof, so that inwardly curved surfaces will retain their desired formation.

Still another object of the invention is to provide an eflicient method of producing an object of the type described above.

These and other objects and advantages of the invention will more fully appear from the following description made in connection with the accompanying drawing wherein like reference characters refer to the same or similar parts throughout the views, and, in which,

Fig. 1 is a front elevation of one of my balloon devices showing it in inflated condition;

Fig. 2 is a sectional profile of the front portion of the object shown in Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a fragmentary sectional view of a modified form of structure; and

Fig. 4 is a sectional view of one of my balloon devices on a separable form.

In the drawing I have shown an inflatable toy balloon B which is shaped to simulate a human head in caricature. The mouth piece 5 may be provided with a valve element 6, the structural details of which are not shown since any type of valve element may be used as desired. The material from which the balloon is made is readily flexible in general, but the material must also have the property of being substantially unstretchable. It is the unstretchability' combined with flexibility which makes the greatest difference between my improved product and I those balloon devices which are universally made 5 of ordinary flexible and extremely stretchable rubber. I have found that one type of material which produces satisfactory results is a material formed mainly from a rubber hydrochloride and disclosed in Letters Patent No. 1,989,632, issued January 29, 1935, to William C. Calvert. This material while having rubber as one of its basic constituents is such that it is extremely flexible and cannot readily be creased.

It differs greatly from ordinary rubber, however, in that it is substantially unstretchable. This material, or any other material having those general properties, is satisfactory for the purpose desired.

I have found that the above mentioned rubber hydrochloride can be successfully shaped to produce an inflatable balloon or similar object by maintaining the material in a solution with a solvent such as dichlorethylene or chloroform. The material may be more easily handled under some circumstances if it is heated to some extent. When in this state the plastic may be formed into solid articles by drying in sheets, or objects may be coated by dipping, spraying or brushing or by any other well known coating method.

In forming the rubber balloon disclosed herein, I have found it advantageous to produce a form whose outer surface is shaped in the manner in which it is desired to shape the balloon device. In Figure 4 I have illustrated a separable core element made up of the two parts I and 8. It will be noted that the outer surface 9 is irregular in shape. The core element 8 is preferably provided with a rim III which goes entirely around said core element at the pointwhere the 00- operating core element 1 abuts it. The core element 8 also includes an extension II for the formation of the tubular mouth piece. The two edges of the core may be secured together in any desired manner and the solution of rubber hydrochloride, or other material having similar properties, is then applied to the outer surface of the separable core. If a single even coating or several even coatings of plastic are applied to the core, the finished balloon will have the same thickness throughout its entire area. As shown in Figure 4, however, the coating applied to the core varies considerably in thickness. This variation in thickness of the film is particularly desirable at points where the finished object is 66 intended to have a more or less sunken area. By thickening the film, I have found that the thickened' portions have greater resistance to the interior airpressure because they are less flexible and the finished product will not tend to bulge out of shape when inflated. This particular feature is more clearly brought out in 'Figure 2. In that view I have shown a thickened portion i2 around the eye area, a similar thickened portion l3 at the base of the nose, and other portions I 4, l5 and I6 at the point where the lips meet just below the lower lip and beneath the chin where the surface of the balloon is depressed or sunken. This thickening as has been described will prevent bulging at sunken areas of the object, and the inherent unstretchability of the material itself will result in a product which will retain the shape desired and produce an article highly superior to the commonly known rubber balloon.

In Figure 3 I have shown a projection I! which may be described as the nose of a figure intended to simulate a human head. It has been found that in some cases it is desirable to form some certain decidedly projecting portions of the object separately from the main film produced. If this is done the main film will be extended more or less in a line corresponding to the general outline of the object to form a strain receiving portion 18 in back of the nose. By thus building up the nose on a face portion as described, it is found that the features of the nose and adjacent cheek areas will be more faithfully maintained. A small opening I9 is provided through the underlying face portion to permit air to enter the projecting nose portion IT. The nose portion may be applied to the main body of the object by cementing or by pressure when heated. The cement used may be a thin application of a solvent which will partially dissolve the surface area of the film and then harden to firmly unite the nose and the remainder of the face portion. The two edges formed upon the separated molded elements I and 8 may be stripped from said edges and united by application of pressure and heat or by adhesion of the solvent in the same manner as the nose is applied to the remainder of the face. It is necessary to form the balloon in two sections when the film is applied to an inner core because the material will not stretch and cannot otherwise be stripped from the core.

It is conceded that other methods of carrying out the desired result may be used. For instance it has been found that an ordinary toy balloon of elastic rubber may be inflated just sufiiciently to cause the features of the balloon to stand out, and then this stretchable rubber balloon may be coated with a thin coating of a nonstretchable plastic. When this is done and the finished article is inflated, the thin layer of nonstretchable plastic will prevent the underlying ordinary rubber balloon from stretching out of shape.

In building up the thickened or reinforced portions, I have found that this may be accomplished by several methods. One is to spray certain areas with additional coats of the nonstretchable plastic so that those portions will be built up or thickened. Another method is to apply strips or preformed films to certain portions of the balloon to build up those portions. If desired when forming a balloon simulating a human head or even an animal head, I have found that the eyes may be molded or otherwise formed separately and applied against the film in product manufactured for use as a wrapper has 10 a certain amount of brittleness and can be fairly easily creased. I have found that if the rubber hydrochloride is used, it is highly desirable to include a small percentage of additional plasticizing agent. One such agent which I have found to be successful is dibutyl phthalate. Diamyl naphthalene and dibutyl stearate may also be used but I have found that they do not producequite as good results. With the addition of this extra plasticlzer I have found that the material is not brittle to any appreciable extent and cannot be easily creased. The finished product is very flexible and has somewhat the consistency of an ordinary rubber balloon. The rubber hydrochloride plastic can be made transparent or a suitable coloring material may be added to it while in solution to produce colored balloons. Furthermore if desired the features of the objects produced may be decorated with external surface coloring. Another method which may be used for forming my balloon is to provide a two piece hollow mold, to coat with a fairly heavy coat those portions of the interior of the mold which are to produce thickened or reinforced portions of the finished balloon, place the two mold sections together and introduce additional solution of the plastic into the mold and then rotate or agitate the mold to produce an additional complete layer of the plastic throughout the interior inner surface of the mold. Additional or surplus solution can be poured from the mold through the opening provided for the mouth piece. It will, of course, be understood that in all of these coating methods, where additional coats or portions of coats are applied one over the other, a period of time must be allowed between successive coats to permit the form to set.

From the foregoing description it will be seen that I have produced an inflatable toy balloon or similar object which may be manufactured and sold as a toy or may be used for display purposes. It may be inflated with a gas and permitted to rise into the air for use as an advertising medium. It is intended to form the object from a flexible nonstretchable material for successfully retaining its shape when the object is inflated, and if there is any bulging at all due to some unusual shape which is produced, this bulging is hardly noticeable and there is decidedly no stretching of the balloon as in the case of such objects made from ordinary rubber.

While I have particularly indicated the use of the rubber hydrochloride film identified above, I should be understood to contemplate the use of any materials which have the properties of being flexible and nonstretchable. In addition the material should also be moisture proof to prevent moisture from the breath from dissolving it or causing it to become tacky.

It will, of course, be understood that various changes may be made in the form, details, arrangement and proportions of the article and in the particular methods and steps of those invention without departing from the scope thereof.

What is claimed is:

1. An inflatable toy balloon and the like comprising a hollow body of irregular shape, said body having sunken portions and projecting portions, the material forming said body being substantially moisture proof, flexible and nonstretchable, and said material being thicker at its sunken portions, whereby said sunken portions will not bulge when the balloon is inflated.

2. An inflatable toy balloon and the like comprising a hollow body of an irregular shape and having sunken portions and projecting portions, some of said projecting portions being independently formed and superposed upon said body, and that portion of said body beneath said independently formed projecting portions being in a plane or curve substantially similar to the plane or curve of the area surrounding said independently formed projecting portions.

3. The structure in claim 2 and said portion of said body beneath said independently formed projecting portion having an opening to permit the inflation of said projecting portion.

4. The method of forming a flexible nonstretchable inflatable toy balloon and the like which includes preparing a solution of a plastic material which has the properties of flexibility and nonstretchability when solidified, and pro-' ducing a hollow balloon like article of irregular shape with projecting portions and sunken portions, the non-stretchability of the material preventing distortion of the intended shape the body.

5. The method of forming a flexible nonstretchable inflatable toy balloon and the like which includes preparing a solution of a plastic material which has the properties of flexibility and non-stretchability when solidified, forming said material in a thin film to produce an object of irregular shape, and increasing the thickness of the film at certain portions thereof to render said portions less flexible and consequently able to withstand internal pressure without material change in the shape of the balloon.

6. An inflatable toy balloon comprising an inner layer of ordinary flexible and stretchable rubber, saidinner layer being formed in an irregular shape, and an outer 'layer intimately and permanently combined with said inner layer and comprising a transparent flexible and nonstretehable substance which will prevent distortion of the flexible and stretchable inner layer when the balloon is inflated.

GEORGE E. SCHOBERG. 

